All of my beer tastes like black licorice

It is really starting to make me mad. I dont know what in the world is causing this problem. The last two beers I have made taste exactly the same...like black licorice. One is the NB extra pale ale and the latest is Yoopers Dead Guy clone (both extract). They taste exactly the same. There is no maltiness to either one of them and the bitterness is exactly the same. These two beers should not even be close in flavor profiles.
I am at a loss and very dissapointed in my brews. Im not sure where to start trying to figure out what is going on.
I have asked this before....but does anyone know what causes this licorice off flavor?

What yeast did you use for those batches?

I used S-05 for the Dead Guy and Wyeast Northwest Ale for the NB EPA.

I wonder if you are picking up a medicinal flavor (sometimes described as clove-Y)? What sanitizer are you using and are you using tap water?

I would say clove-y is a perfect description. It is terrible and overpowers everything. I use the Dollar Tree oxygen cleaner powder and StarSan. I am using my tap water as well.

That flavor comes from phenols from chlorine. If you are topping off with unboiled tap water, that is were your flavor is likely coming from.

I have boiled my topoff water for both batches though? Is there something to check in my water that would cause this problem? My tap water tastes fine. It doesnt have a chlorine taste at all?

Below is a list of off-flavors, this may help out. Also, to check to see if it's your water, you could pick up 7gallons of spring water from the grocery store. Brew your next batch with that and see how it turns out.

What do you use for sanitizer? What temps do you ferment at?

Adhesive bandages (phenolic)
Bacterial contamination; residue from a sanitizing agent ( this odor is expected of certain style beers)


Apple cider (Acetaldehyde)
Refined sugar in the recipe or bacterial contamination


Baby diapers (Enteric)
Bacterial contamination


Banana (Banana esters)
Certain ale yeast strains, particularly Bavarian Weizenbier and Belgium Strong Ales


Barnyard (Enteric)
Bacteria contamination


Bubblegum (Bubblegum)
Certain Ale yeast strains, particularly Belgium Strong Ales and Bavarian Weizenbier


Butter/Butterscotch (Diacetyl)
Bacteria, certain yeast strains, warm fermentation, short aging


Cardboard or paper (Oxidized)
Contact with air; old, stale beer


Cauliflower or cooked cabbage (Vegetal)
Bacteria contamination


Cloves (Phenolic)
Certain yeast strains; such as those in Bavarian Weizenbier



Cooked corn (DMS (dimethyl sulfide))
Poor grain quality; bacterial contamination



Cooking sherry (Oxidized)
Contact with air; long and warm fermentation


Green Apple (Acetaldehyde)
Refined sugar in the recipe; bacterial contamination


Leather (Oxidized)
Contact with air and/or old, stale beer


Marker (Phenolic)
Bacterial contamination; residue of sanitizing agent

Matches (burnt) or Sulfur (Hydrogen sulfide)
Natural by product of fermentation that’s normally flushed out with the production of carbon diaoxide


Mold (Moldy)
Sanitation problem; leeking package seal


Nail polish remover (Solvent like)
Esters produced during high temperature fermentation


Olives (green or black) or Pickles (Acetic)
Acetobacteria contamination


Paint thinner (Solvent like)
Fusel alcohols produced during high temperature fermentation


Rotten eggs (Hydrogen sulfide)
Yeast autolysis


Rubber (Hydrogen sulfide)
Yeast autolysis

Skunk (Light struck)
Damage from light

Smoke (Phenolic)
Use of dark or smoked grains that evoke this aroma

Soap (Soapy)
Residue from sanitizing agents

Vinyl upholstery (Phenolic)
Bacterial contamination; residue from sanitizing agents

Wet dog (Musty)
Bacterial contamination; lengthy aging of bottle conditioned beer


If you beer tastes odd


Blood (Metallic)
Iron in water supply


Butter/butterscotch (Diacetyl)
Certain yeast strains, warm fermentation


Chalk (Astringent)
Overfermentation; misuse of grain


Harsh (Astringent)
High hop bitterness; misuse of grain


Powdery (Astringent)
Lack of sweetness; grain astringency


Salt (Salty)
Use of brewing salts especially sodium chloride and magnesium sulfate


Sour milk (Lactic)
Lactic fermentation (which is intentional in some beer styles such as Berliner Weisse)

Tin can (Metallic)
Iron in water supply; contact with metals

I wonder if your water supply uses chloramines, which is very common in water systems. Chloramines do not boil off.

To see if it's indeed the water, for one batch try using bottled spring water. If the problem is fixed, then you know it's the water. It can be treated with campden tablets.

Did you use the same fermentor for each batch? Did you brew anything else in the fermentor, I.E. rootbeer?

Were your beers OK before these 2 bad ones?

Thanks for the replies everyone. I will try to answer some of the questions above. The last two beers that have this clove flavor are only my third and fourth batches. My first two did not have any of this flavor present. The only part of my process that has changed is my bottling process. For the first two batches I soaked and rinsed in tap water and sanitised in a bucket of starsan. The two batches with the off flavor I used my dishwasher with no detergent or jet dry and allowed the bottles to dry and cool before I bottle. My notes do not say anything about the hydro samples tasting off and as I remeber most of them tasted pretty good. Do you think there would be enough chlorine or chloramine in my water to leave residue on the bottles? I have alternated fermentors with my batches so the two off batches used different vesseles. My ferment temps are usually around 60-62 degrees in my basement so I don't think those would be way out of control. One of the batches may have been pitched a little warm but not more than 10 degrees.
After laying in bed for hours last night running my process through my head the only conclusions I can come up with are my dishwasher or my tap water.
I'm thinking of doing a couple cheap half batches until I can get it figured out. Any suggestions? As of now I have about 9 gallons of super clovey beer on my hands that I can't drink. I assume this stuff won't age out either....correct?

It might age out and it might not depending on the cause, the only way to know for sure is to leave them alone for a while. I'd bet it's the "stuff" left in the dishwasher. Do a couple of those half batches, one with different water and the same diswashed bottles, the other with your tap water and the StarSan bottles. That should nail it down for you.

I had black licorice flavor come from burning some LME in the bottom of my pot. Are you using LME?

did you use your dishwasher's "heated dry" or "sanitize" setting?

If your water is from a municipal supply, it very likely is treated with chloramine.

Their are several kinds of chloramine, my supply used trichloramine which does not have a "bleach" or "swimming pool" smell. It is described as having a "geranium" smell. Either way, untreated my water would lead to chlorophenols in my beer.

How to treat? Boiling won't work if it is chloramines (and were it free chlorine, you would smell it). Carbon filtration works but pay attention to rated flow rates and filter life. Campden tablets (at 1 per 20 gal) work as well.

YooperBrew said:

I wonder if your water supply uses chloramines, which is very common in water systems. Chloramines do not boil off.

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You should be able to get a water profile from your local water company - might even be online.

YooperBrew said:

I wonder if your water supply uses chloramines, which is very common in water systems. Chloramines do not boil off.

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I know this info is out in cyberspace somewhere, or probably in one of my books, but does anyone know off the top of their head what an acceptable level of chloramines is? My Denver water profile quotes an average of 1.27 ppm. I've never really tasted any funky off flavors in my beers, and I've always used 100% tap water (all boiled b/c all-grain).

I had this same intense clove like smell and taste in one of my batches a few months ago. Whats weird is that it was a ten gallon batch that I split between two carboys and used two different dry yeasts. In one I used Nottingham, it turned out great. I kegged it first while the other 5 gallons was still on the cake. In this other carboy I used US-05, I could smell the cloves in the terminal hydro sample. I though I would leave it for a while to see if it cleared up, and just blamed it on the yeast. One month later, six weeks total, the cloves would knock your head off, and the straw color had darkened to an ugly cloudy tan. I dumped it and cleaned and sanitized everything that touched it.

I don't know if this would be helpful or not.

Although we are on well water the Health Dept requires us to chlorinate our water supply. We use an "all house" filter that takes out the chlorine and I would guess would work for chloramines as well. I know it works for we have to test for how many ppm of chlorine is in the water and the house taps show that chlorine is absent.

If you have access to the incoming water line the filter is really easy to install.

moonbrew said:

I had this same intense clove like smell and taste in one of my batches a few months ago. Whats weird is that it was a ten gallon batch that I split between two carboys and used two different dry yeasts. In one I used Nottingham, it turned out great. I kegged it first while the other 5 gallons was still on the cake. In this other carboy I used US-05, I could smell the cloves in the terminal hydro sample. I though I would leave it for a while to see if it cleared up, and just blamed it on the yeast. One month later, six weeks total, the cloves would knock your head off, and the straw color had darkened to an ugly cloudy tan. I dumped it and cleaned and sanitized everything that touched it.

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This last batch of the Dead Guy clone is the exact same way....cloves that will knock your head off and it developed a hazy amber color. I secondaried this beer because it was a bigger beer and honestly I couldnt find the time to bottle. By the time I got to it, it was crystal clear. When I poured the first one last night you couldnt see through the pint glass.
To answer one of the other questions.....I use my dishwasher on the light wash and then heated dry cycles. I am really starting to think that it has something to do with the bottle washing/sanitizing in the dishwasher. I am definitely going to check out my water though.
I think I am going to have to dump both batches. It is really hard to drink. I am going to try one of the pale ales tonight to see if it is mellowing at all. I also have a stout that needs to be bottled so I am going to bottle without using the dishwasher.

I have well water, so there is no chlorine in it. And I don't use bleach, or anything like that to clean with. I think it must have been some kind of infection, the way it turned darker and the smell and taste got progressively worse.

moti_mo said:

I know this info is out in cyberspace somewhere, or probably in one of my books, but does anyone know off the top of their head what an acceptable level of chloramines is? My Denver water profile quotes an average of 1.27 ppm. I've never really tasted any funky off flavors in my beers, and I've always used 100% tap water (all boiled b/c all-grain).

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I think 3ppm is the federal max and 1.27 ppm is high enough to cause problems.

Here is where it gets interesting. 1.27 ppm is what existed at the plant, it will be lower at your house and how much lower depend on how much of the chloramine reacts with stuff on the way to your house (higher pH keeps it more stable and this is one reason some municipal supplies intentionally have a pH around 9 or so).

The only way to know for sure how much chloramine is in your water is to test it and the testing should take place very soon after collection.

I think filtering/campden are cheap insurance as the level may vary from day to day and you don't want to figure out it was particularly high one day the hard way.

apologeticus said:

did you use your dishwasher's "heated dry" or "sanitize" setting?

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Please explain the different outcomes one might expect from using one or the other.

On my first two batches, I used both. Probably overkill (and it took a long time to finish), but I didn't know which was the most important.

Killian_77 said:

This last batch of the Dead Guy clone is the exact same way....cloves that will knock your head off and it developed a hazy amber color. I secondaried this beer because it was a bigger beer and honestly I couldnt find the time to bottle. By the time I got to it, it was crystal clear. When I poured the first one last night you couldnt see through the pint glass.
To answer one of the other questions.....I use my dishwasher on the light wash and then heated dry cycles. I am really starting to think that it has something to do with the bottle washing/sanitizing in the dishwasher. I am definitely going to check out my water though.
I think I am going to have to dump both batches. It is really hard to drink. I am going to try one of the pale ales tonight to see if it is mellowing at all. I also have a stout that needs to be bottled so I am going to bottle without using the dishwasher.

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That sounds like an infection, not water chemistry issues! If it WAS clear, and is now cloudy with a clove-like taste, it sounds like a bacterial infection.

I'd suggest not using the dishwasher and super clean all of your bottles. Soak them in oxyclean, and scrub them well with a bottle brush and rise well. Then, before bottling another batch, switch to a no-rinse sanitizer like star san. Get rid of any plastic tubing, and replace it with new.

Chloramines do have a bad taste, but this is beginning to sound more like an infection.

JiveTurkey said:

Please explain the different outcomes one might expect from using one or the other.

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oh I'm not sure. I think either gets the job done. My dishwasher only has "heated dry," no sanitize setting but heated dry gets the job down well for me.

+100 on infection.